Droid X

[Austin]

The Droid Xtreme, Droid Shadow, Droid whatever rumors have been circulating a lot lately. The truth is that the Droid X is what it is, and it is freaking groovy as it gets.

 

 

Droid X Specs known so far:

• 4.4-inch, FWVGA 854 x 480-resolution screen
  
• 8-megapixel camera, and 720p video recorder
  
• Screaming fast 1GHz ARMv7 processor
  
• lightweight but rather large body
  
• Android 2.1 with "Motoblur"
  
• 8GB storage, but upgradeable
  
• HDMI out

 

It very much has the makings to be an iPhone 4 killer.

[Rufio]

iphone 4 killer. yes indeed. I'm getting one of these the day they come out.

 

On June 23 when they either launch it or announce the official release date they are supposed to be sending the demos out to Verizon stores so you can test them out.

 

the only thing that comes close to this is the Evo 4g

Edited June 19, 2010 by Guest

[Steve Krause]

Soo I agree, it looks pretty cool BUT, I already have about 50 apps on the iPhone and I'm kinda locked in at this point...... Sad I know but... It would hurt if I had to start over on the Droid.

[Guest Quafe24]

It looks good, but I don't know if it can out-do the HTC EVO 4g. They kind of missed the mark here by not including a front facing camera... come on! I don't want to go sprint, but I just might.

[jordan]

It looks good, but I don't know if it can out-do the HTC EVO 4g. They kind of missed the mark here by not including a front facing camera... come on! I don't want to go sprint, but I just might.

I agree... not to mention I HAVE the Evo 4G. It's everything I wanted it to be and more. Been with Sprint for 6 years, they've (as everyone knows) had ups and downs. But right now Sprint is the best it's been since I joined with them, and it's only been getting better esp. in the past year.

[Steve Krause]

How is 4G? How much faster would you say over 3G?

 

Also, have you tried to use it as a wifi hotspot? How does that work? I was looking at the Sprint Mifi which GrooveDex talked about a while back. With this however, might not need it.

[Beyond_Life]

I can use my galaxy as hotspot too. Did that once, with two friends in the train. Worked nice, for simpel email checking but dont expect to much of it. You can fully surf the web. But thats mabye just cause the connection I got.

[Austin]

Just pre-ordered my Samsung Galaxy - AKA - Epic 4G on sprint.

Was interesting, I was watching Hulu and they advertised for the Samsung Galaxy "exclusively with AT&T", yet the Epic 4G is exactly that, plus a 4G antenna. I guess they had to change the name for legal reasons when they branded it for Sprint.

 

I did a lot of side-by-side comparison shopping with all of the other phones out there, Samsung is dressed to impress. Here's why I got it over other smartphones.

 

• Sure the screen isn't quite the monster of the EVO or the Droid X, but the battery life is MUCH better.
  
• Sprint is a lot easier on the wallet than Verizon.
  
• The hardware inside the Galaxy is on par or better than the Droid X, leaving the Evo in the dust. DDR2 Memory for the win and a way better video processor.
  
• Choice, there is a physical hardware keyboard so if I don't like the software SWYPE one I can just use the slide-out.
  
• HTC had morons in tech support when I called them about some review questions for the EVO, Samsung on the other hand was helpful.
  
• Yeah that's pretty much it. I'm still a little torn and thinking about switching to the EVO because of the way it looks and the huge screen, but I'm convinced the Galaxy is a way better phone in the long run.

 

I'm still disappointed that Google isn't moderating the Android Market Appstore very well, I mean there are a ton of fake apps on there and you'd think they would want to at least have a better reputation than Apple... It just seems like they don't care.

[Beyond_Life]

Google does care, but the management of the market indeed sucks. But there are just to much apps. Most of it rocks. But the majority is like the app before. To much weather apps, to much background apps (but I do recomend you Flikkie)

 

And I do wanna recomend you ApnSwitch. You can kill your complete dataconnection with it, but still call. A few other apps:

 

- Bluetooth File Transfer. Same says it all;

- Apps Installer. Installs .apk from sd that you got there through you pc/datacable. Make sure you check "install from unsafe sources"

- Astro. THE ultimate filemanager for android;

- Layar, combined with Conquar. Battle with Augmented reality!!! (Dutch invention hehe )

- Evernote. With this, you wont forget anything. It hold your notes, and you can get them back on the web;

- Dropbox. Just cause it rocks;

- LauncherPro Plus. It works better that the standard TouchWizz3.0 and its faster. www.launcherpro.com and get Home Switcher too, if you want to switch back to the TouchWizz3.0

- Look Out. Great scanner for you mobile. And also great in backing up.

- PayPall App!!!!!!! You know why

- NetSentry. Easy simple no fuzz tool to check you data usage.

- Scan2pdf. Same says it all.

- Tweetcaster Premium. Addfree version from Tweetcaster, best twitter app on the market for android. Tweetdeck for android is almost better, when you can add and delete collums, change the font and update options. But its still beta. Till then, Tweetcaster is what you want.

[jordan]

How is 4G? How much faster would you say over 3G?

 

Also, have you tried to use it as a wifi hotspot? How does that work? I was looking at the Sprint Mifi which GrooveDex talked about a while back. With this however, might not need it.

Honestly I love the Evo 4G. I haven't had any issues with it. The 4G is really nice, I don't keep the antenna on all the time because I'm not surfing the web constantly, but when I want to surf around or watch videos it's really nice. I average about 2.5 - 3mbps down and around 700kbps up, so it's pretty fast - see screenshot below, I'm in Seattle, WA and this is from a TX server.

 

I haven't actually used the hotspot feature because it's an extra $30/mo. However you can use the hotspot on demand I just found out, which is awesome. So if you're in a situation where you need to use a hotspot for a few devices you can just enable is and they'll bill you for that month only - this is what they told me at least. There's a tethering work around that'll allow you to share your internet with your computer. You'll have to google that one for more info.

 

[Steve Krause]

I jailbroke my iPhone and enabled the wireless tether so that worked out just fine. I'm surprised the Android phones is charging you for that... feels just the opposite for what I expected on the Android Vs. iPhone.

[Beyond_Life]

Charging for thethering? That should be in USA only then cause im not being charged extra here in the Netherlands.

[goLfie]

I jailbroke my iPhone and enabled the wireless tether so that worked out just fine. I'm surprised the Android phones is charging you for that... feels just the opposite for what I expected on the Android Vs. iPhone.

 

On any android smartphone you can enable Tethering, but it takes a work-around that is "off the books" kind of like Jailbreaking that iPhone.

 

And like Beyond Life says, USA is the only place that charges for it, greedy wireless providers we got here.

[jordan]

I jailbroke my iPhone and enabled the wireless tether so that worked out just fine. I'm surprised the Android phones is charging you for that... feels just the opposite for what I expected on the Android Vs. iPhone.

 

As was said, It's not Android that's charging for tethering, it's the carriers. But with Android there's a pretty easy work around, nowhere near jailbreaking, especially because my warranty is still fully intact.

 

To tether most people are using the PDAnet app. It's free as long as you're not using it on a secure site (https). If you want a non restricted version it's a one time $23 fee, but still way cheaper than anything else I've seen. Sprint has already said they won't block any apps because they feel that's wrong, so I know I'm in the clear.

[shockersh]

Yup - that's what i've been using. PDANET. Free for HTTP which is pretty much all I need. You can tether via wireless or usb cable but I always use wireless.

[Guest dexter]

mmm...interesting info, thanks